Centennial Salon featuring Ben Rhodes
An invitation-only gathering in a private home
In celebration of the centennial of the Richard J. Riordan Central Library, we are delighted to invite you to an intimate Centennial Salon featuring bestselling author and former presidential advisor Ben Rhodes.
Bringing together a distinguished circle of library supporters, civic leaders, and friends, this private afternoon offers an opportunity for thoughtful conversation, new perspectives, and meaningful connections in an intimate home setting. Ben Rhodes will discuss his acclaimed new book, All We Say: The Battle for American Identity: A History in 15 Speeches, exploring the enduring power of language to shape our nation’s history and future.
The afternoon will also highlight the Library Foundation of Los Angeles’ Centennial Celebration and the bold vision guiding the Los Angeles Public Library into its next century.
As a special courtesy of our host, each guest will receive a complimentary copy of All We Say.
We hope you will join us for an inspiring afternoon celebrating ideas, literature, and one of Los Angeles’ most treasured civic institutions.
Location: Hosted by the Anderson Family at a private home in Brentwood. Address shared upon registration.
Parking: Street parking is available
Attire: Dressy casual
Questions?
Please reach out to Alex Nguyen, Director of Major and Planned Giving, at alexnguyen@lfla.org
RSVP
Please RSVP by Friday, September 18, 2026
Featured Author and Moderator
Ben Rhodes
Ben Rhodes is a writer, foreign affairs expert, and native New Yorker. He’s a dad, a Knicks and Mets fan, and student of history – delving into the stories we tell to help make sense of the world, and each other.
Ben is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, co-host of Pod Save the World, a contributor to MSNBC, and the author of two New York Times bestsellers—After the Fall: The Rise of Authoritarianism in the World We Made and The World As It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House. His latest book, All We Say: The Battle for American Identity, is a sweeping history of the United States told through fifteen speeches that reflect the battle over American identity and the questions, “What does it mean to be American? Who gets to decide?”
From 2009 to 2017, he served as Deputy National Security Advisor and speechwriter to President Barack Obama, participating in all of the President’s key foreign policy decisions. His work has also been published in The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, and Foreign Affairs.
Jon Favreau
Jonathan Edward Favreau is an American political commentator, podcaster, and the former director of speechwriting for President Barack Obama.
After graduating from the College of the Holy Cross, he worked for the John Kerry presidential campaign in 2004 and was promoted to the role of Deputy Speechwriter. Favreau first met Barack Obama, then a state senator from Illinois, while working on the Kerry campaign.
In 2005, Obama’s communications director Robert Gibbs recommended Favreau to Obama as a speechwriter. Favreau was hired as Obama’s speechwriter shortly after Obama’s election to the United States Senate. In 2009, he was named to the White House staff as Director of Speechwriting.
In January 2017, he co-founded liberal media company Crooked Media with fellow former Obama staffers Tommy Vietor and Jon Lovett, and began co-hosting the political podcast Pod Save America with Vietor, Lovett, and Dan Pfeiffer.
